Image challenge - Class projects with mobile phones

Image Challenge - Week Two

Projects with mobile phones - inside and outside

Time to start the next week of our year challenge, which is 52 weeks - 52 ways !

Our challenge to use various ways of images in the classroom turned out to be a success. You agreed that it is a great idea and that is worth taking up. A few people asked me about WI-FI access. Well, I use it in 3 ways - sometimes students have their own internet, sometimes I use the one we have at school, but the most often I just share mine. In every mobile there is an option to use it as a router. Whenever I buy a new mobile I check two aspects: the amount of the Internet I get and the quality of pictures - both practical in the classroom.

Let me also point out that this project is only one aspect of teaching and it doesn't mean that I use mobiles on every lesson. The idea is to try out every week various way of using images with students and  make lessons more attractive as well as more more motivating. So let's get to work!

About projects

The projects that I'm going to present today are all connected with the use of mobile phones but they are a bit longer activities than the ones from the previous week. These are projects, which means they can last even the whole lesson.

Let's go out

It's winer time in most countries now but soon the spring will come and maybe you will have a chance to take your students out.  What to do then? This particular idea is taken from the book by Nicky Hockly and Gavin Dudeney  Going mobile - teaching with hand-held devices (highly recommended)

Find it! - photo treasure hunt

Divide your students into groups of 3 and give each of the group a sheet of paper with the task. Their task is to take a photo of these objects. Time - 5 minutes.

•  Something small and green

•  Something white in a shape of a rectangle

•  Something with three colours

•  Something  big and brown

Students go out and try to find the treasure – in this case it is a picture. Of course, the task can vary, depending on the size, level and age. Then students show the pictures of their treasures and we choose  the winner in each category. My school is situated next to the park so when it gets sunny and hot students ask about lessons outside and then we use this game to break the routine and kill boredom. 

And what game do you play?

Do you know the games your students play? No? High time to change it! Each of your students has at least one game in the mobile. I said at least because in my son's class, for example, an average 12 year old has 5-10 different ones. Imagine that you want to practice the language of instructions. You ask your students to choose the game they like and think how they could present the rules of the game in English. Then you write on the board the most essential expressions needed in the presentation and students one by one present the game together with the rules. Sounds like fun:) They can finally tell about sth they just adore doing! But what to do if you have a big group and it would take ages before everybody would say sth. Then you get them in pairs and they have to tell each other about the rules. As the final task they have to teach me - the teacher - how to play one of them. I tried and that was a disaster - I hate games:) I'm so slow - but at least I showed a human nature (the second nature) of a teacher - that you can't do something at times, either.

Agario - the game I was taught by my students:)

Holiday itinerary

Having a chapter about travelling? Well, the phone can come in handy. Just write three destinations on the board eg. LONDON - PARIS - BARCELONA. Then you ask your students which destination they would like to choose. They stand in the lines in front of the place of their destination. Next, you write on the board:

FLIGHT - ACCOMMODATION - -TRANSPORT - FOOD  - ENTERTAINMENT 

Tell your students that they are going on a city break (Friday - Sunday) to chosen destinations and their task is to plan everything in details. They have to choose an airline, a place of living, which mean of transport they are going to use in the city, where they are going to eat and finally what kind of entertainment they are going to choose. AIM? A version that is going to be the most attractive but the cheapest - wins. They learn practical things - we learn English to travel, don't we? I teach them which websites are interesting to use eg www.booking.com for accommodation. They really enjoyed it.


Cooking Time

All students love food lessons! They can be done in various of ways. We often order a pizza or have hamburger parties with younger students duing which they compose their own burgers. Sometimes we have roles plays in the restaurant, with a waiter, customers and laid tables. But the most common form is that students prepare food at home (starters, main courses and desserts, depending what they draw) and then they tell how they did it describing all stages of preparing the food: add, mix, bake etc, then tell about ingredients and then we finally eat:)))

What about a small modification? Your students can take the photos at home of all the cooking stages and then, before the other students try their dishes, they have to describe them in detail, showing photos. For sure, they will have to use cooking verbs and the names of all the ingredients and the IMAGES from their phones!

                                                

There is, there are

A fantastic idea to use with younger students. if you want to practice the grammar structure There is/there are you can ask your students to take a photo of their bedroom or their favourite room in the house. Then students get in pairs and work together describing what is in each of them. The biggest advantage??? Happy parents as the room was finally cleaned:) nobody wants to take a photo of a mess.

In those two weeks I wanted to show you that photos are not only images from the colourful magazines. But there is a wide range of ideas available within the reach for all of the teachers. Students' phones!!! I am more than happy that I had a chance to share my ideas with you but I would be overjoyed to read about your ideas. How do you use students' phones and images, in particular.

Comment - share - enjoy!!!

Next week  - new ideas:)